The frozen food industry in the UK is huge. The frozen food section of large UK supermarkets is often the most profitable part of the store. Now, as the horsemeat scandal deepens, consumers are rejecting frozen foods.

The scandal involving horsemeat in foodstuffs and ready-made meals was portrayed by the UK government as a fraud involving criminal gangs outside the UK but yesterday, events took a new turn as food inspectors and police raided two UK based meat plants.

The UK’s horsemeat in food scandal took a new twist last night as a government body, Britain’s Food Standards Agency, the FSA, reported that tests on Findus brand frozen beef lasagne ready meals showed they may have contained 100 per cent horsemeat.